The Mighty Consumer Is on the Ropes

By

Spencer Jakab

Updated Dec. 12, 2012 7:09 p.m. ET

Ladies and gentlemen, in this corner, weighing in at just under five trillion dollars a year, your reigning world heavyweight champion: the American consumer. In the opposing corner, at a menacing $600 billion, the "fiscal cliff."

It is tempting to view the outlook for personal consumption in black-and-white terms. Either the fiscal cliff will land a knockout or its force will be a glancing blow that merely stings. All of...